Injured Railroaders Should Not Delay — FELA Injury Claims Have 3-Year Deadline

Injured railroad employees who may have a case against their employer under the Federal Employers Liability Act (FELA) should not delay in filing their claim. The federal law gives injured railroaders just three years from the date of their injury to file FELA injury claims.

Too many FELA injury claims get thrown out of court for failing to meet the three-year deadline. These injured workers end up with far less compensation than they deserve for their pain and suffering, lifelong disabilities and/or shortened lifespans. Often they receive no compensation at all.

Three years may seem like plenty of time to file a lawsuit but serious injuries often require months or even years of treatment and rehabilitation. Often, injury victims don’t want the hassle and stress of filing a lawsuit while they’re still in pain or undergoing treatment, so they delay in filing their claim. This can be a costly mistake that leaves the victim high and dry without means of paying extensive medical bills and no ability to work to earn an income.

What Happens When Injuries Aren’t Discovered within 3 Years? — The Discovery Rule as Applied to FELA Injury Claims

Some injuries, such as repetitive motion injuries, hearing loss, exposure injuries and the like don’t occur with a single incident from which the beginning of the 3-year statute of limitations can be timed. Rather, they accumulate over time and often the source of the injury isn’t determined until years after the first symptoms begin. For FELA injury claims like these, the courts have ruled that the 3-year time limit doesn’t begin until the injury victim discovers that he or she is injured AND that the injury resulted from the railroad’s negligence.

Note that two conditions must be met to start the clock ticking on the statute of limitation for FELA injury claims:

1. The injury victim must have discovered the injury — if lung cancer or other condition isn’t discovered or diagnosed until five years after the railroader retires, the claim can still be filed and, in most cases, he has up to three years from the date of diagnosis to file the claim.
2. The injury victim must realize that the injury most likely occurred as a result of the railroad’s negligence while the employee was working for the railroad — if a railroader diagnosed with cancer doesn’t figure out that the railroad is the cause of the cancer until two years after the original diagnosis (assuming he has made a diligent effort to discover the cause) then the statute of limitation doesn’t start running until that time.

This “Discovery Rule” is a great boon to many injured railroaders who don’t discover their condition until years after it first gains a foothold. Usually, by the time conditions of this sort are diagnosed, they are significantly advanced and it is likely to impact the rest of the railroader’s life. Fortunately, the courts have seen that it isn’t just to invoke the three-year statute of limitations until an injury and its cause are known.

Railroaders’ Duty to Investigate — The Modified Discovery Rule for FELA Injury Claims

While the Discovery Rule provides a saving grace to railroaders who genuinely don’t know they have an injury until years afterward, it doesn’t mean a railroader can wait years after the first cough or pain develops to go see a doctor or investigate the cause of the injury. The courts have ruled that in FELA injury claims, if an injured railroader suspected an injury or condition (or experienced symptoms of one) then the three-year time limit begins running. Similarly if work for the railroad is suspected as the source of the injury, condition or symptom, the clock begins ticking at that time. This is known as the “Modified Discovery Rule.”

A railroader who waits four years to find out why his wrist or elbow hurts all the time could be out of luck when they finally discover that repetitive motion work on the railroad resulted in carpel tunnel syndrome. The test to determine whether FELA injury claims are filed within the three-year statute of limitations is this: would a reasonable person conducting a reasonable investigation would have taken as long as the plaintiff to discover the injury and its origin.

Injury victims who ignore symptoms or don’t make an effort to discover the origin of their injury run the risk of missing the FELA injury claims deadline. If they miss it, they will not receive the compensation they need and deserve to pay medical bills and mitigate other damages they suffer.

Get Help Now in Finding Out the Origin of Your Injury Condition or Symptoms

If you are an injured railroader or former railroader and suspect your injury or condition may have resulted from your work on the railroad, you need the help of an experienced railroad injury lawyer immediately. Your lawyer will help you investigate whether the railroad’s negligence was to blame for your injury or condition and whether a FELA injury claim is appropriate.

In Michigan, the personal injury firm of Sachs Waldman, P.C., can assist in identifying the source of your injury or condition. Our lawyers have extensive experience with FELA injury claims. Call our Detroit personal injury attorneys’ office at 1-800-638-6722 to schedule a free consultation.